This invention relates generally to sanitary shoe covers and more particularly concerns an automatic dispenser for shoe covers of the surgical type commonly used to safeguard operating room environments against contamination.
Surgical type shoe covers are used by health care professionals in a number of settings. Similar covers are used, for example, by real estate offices during house showings, by construction workers to protect completed work and by food preparation and service employees. The cover material typically consists of polyolefin fibers heated and pressed together to form a soft, fluid repellent fabric, but could also be made of polyethylene. The cover has a mouth sized to be opened to a size that allows the entry of the foot into the cover toe first. The covers are generally stored in a cardboard box and manually removed from the box and applied to the shoe-covered foot. Some covers are stored in a dispenser, similar to a roll-tape dispenser, for manual removal of individual covers from the roll.
The manual dispensing and application of the cover to the shoe-covered foot is a major drawback in the use of the cover. During manual removal of the cover from the box or dispenser, contaminants on the hands of the user can be transferred to the cover being removed and applied as well as to other covers that may be contacted during the process. Furthermore, observation of the manual cover application process by patients, customer or others does not instill an attitude of confidence in the overall sanitary condition of the premises or the personnel working on the premises. Nor, for that matter, does observation of the storage of the covers in seemingly all to accessible cardboard boxes or non-enclosed roll dispensers.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a sanitary shoe cover dispenser which stores the covers in a substantially enclosed environment. It is also an object of this invention to provide a sanitary shoe cover dispenser which does not require manual contact with the cover during removal of the cover from the dispenser. Another object of this invention is to provide a sanitary shoe cover dispenser which does not require manual contact with the cover during application of the cover to a shoe-covered foot. A further object of this invention is to provide a sanitary shoe cover dispenser which fosters an attitude of confidence in the attentiveness to maintaining a sanitary environment. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a sanitary shoe cover dispenser which automatically mechanically positions a cover for insertion of a shoe-covered foot. And it is an object of this invention to provide a non-manual method for applying a stored sanitary shoe cover to a shoe-covered foot.